… Detachment

This post is one of 26 I am writing for the A-Z Challenge on the subject of writing a memoir. I’m not an expert in writing memoirs, but I’m exploring the topic with thoughts about writing one, and am happy to share the fruits of my exploration.

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There are two (or more) I’s involved in a memoir: the I that’s writing the memoir and the I that takes part in every scene in the memoir. It’s important to keep the two separate. You are not the same person you were when the scenes you are describing took place.

Detachment is what enables you to laugh at your former self and to understand truths that were not clear at the time. We’ll be coming back to these traits in future posts.

Detachment is what enables you to recreate yourself. I’ll leave you with a quote by Orson Scott Card:

You know how writers are… they create themselves as they create their work. Or perhaps they create their work in order to create themselves.